Christmas, 2016 is when I got my first computer. It was an HP 20-c020 all-in-one, I still have it in fact. My interest in computers began from watching Vinesauce Joel’s Windows destruction videos, I watched a lot of YouTube on my Wii U. I made my first steam account on January 14, 2017 and first played Team Fortress 2 a day later (I made my main account after I lost the credentials for the original.) I had previous experience in Valve games on the Xbox 360, we had Half-Life 2 on the original Xbox, Left 4 Dead, and the Orange Box. Though, I never touched TF2; I do have two memories of the game before I ever played it, I remember what I can now recognize as my father playing as Heavy on Gravel Pit, I think he only played the game once or twice on Xbox. And at a wedding, an older kid with a laptop who I didn’t know was playing Pyro on Turbine.
It was in my sixth grade collage readiness class where we were tasked to make a comic, for some reason. Being my new favorite game, I made a comic about Team Fortress 2. The cover is the first time I ever drew TF2 characters. I had no references, and this was before my 5000+ hours in-game had burned the mercenaries’ designs into my brain, so they are very off-model. I didn’t know about Redmond and Blutarch Mann at the time, so I created original bosses of the teams. Unfortunately, I have lost the first two pages, and the last page. One of the first is of bald guy (I don’t remember which guy is for what team) I don’t remember what the other would be though. The last page is the Scout getting blown up by the rocket (there wasn't any gore, it was just a drawing of the intel room with a big explosion in it.) Looking back, I’m surprised I didn’t get in trouble for this, thanks to my teacher for being cool. Later, I would create a claymation “remake” of this for my eighth grade art class.